Posted by Lee/AR on 5/14/09 9:48pm
Msg #288549

Just curious...what's with the rash of notaries

in one state looking for notaries to close in another state? Is everyone moonlighting as an SS these days?

Reply by notaryinmo on 5/14/09 10:28pm
Msg #288550

You're not the only one wondering that same question, Lee. I do know of a Missouri notary that somehow has a SS (she won't even give me a name) with 4 notaries but I think it's just in MO (so far) - and to top it off, they are VERY picky about who they work with - apparently, if the owner doesn't know you, you can't "get on board". Some SS...lol

Reply by Tom/NJ on 5/15/09 6:18am
Msg #288561

Makes sense..As a smaller SS the owner's niche in the market is to provide a close knit group of people the owner can personally vouch for. When her reputation is on the line, she probably wants to be able to trust those that she personally knows and that will do a good job.

Reply by jba/fl on 5/15/09 12:21am
Msg #288552

They are all SS - signing services, getting free ads. n/m

Reply by MistarellaFL on 5/15/09 6:39am
Msg #288562

Re: They are all SS - signing services

The problem is that so many have left the field full time.
It's hard to find someone in specific areas for specific times...from what I hear.

Reply by sue_pa on 5/15/09 8:24am
Msg #288569

since the beginning of the year I've received numerous of these calls. I basically refuse them all. I did take two orders because of the "erroneous" ways they phrased themselves during the initial call.

One young lady named Denise from VA outright lied and told me she worked for the title company and I was getting the order directly from them. Turns out she is "just a notary" who farms work out. Lo and behold, I had trouble collecting ... she said/he said with the title company... I didn't care what their deal was or which of them was 'right', I just wanted my money 3 months down the road. Got it but what a chore.

A young man (forget his name) from the Pittsburgh area called me with an order and indicated he was from a client of mine who I hadn't heard from in several months. I took the order. Seems he had a fulltime at another title company but did closings on the side. He was "thinking" about opening a signing service so my client (who was also his client) gave him their list of good closers and then he was to contact us with the orders. I, naturally, threw a fit. To "prove" my point, I e-mailed with a generic question. Title company responded within 3 or 4 minutes .... took the 'signing service' a good 45 minutes. Again, I was paid but, lo and behold, I'm back to getting my orders direct.

Last week a young lady from Virginia was e-mailing/calling about an order. I backtracked her phone number and she was also "just a notary". She was "authorized" to pay $90.

As for the one higher in the thread from Missouri (?), sounds like that lady you seem to be complaining about is doing it the right way. If more companies would screen and interview who they hire, a lot of the problems in the field would be eliminated.

Reply by Julie/IL on 5/15/09 9:35am
Msg #288578

We used to have hundreds of closings a month a few years back. We were "just notaries" farming out the extras we would get. We were not making much on each closing, but we paid weekly regardless. Things got way too crazy and we had no Quality control. Notaries were making errors that we would have to go back out to fix. We decided at that point to stop it altogether. Their mistakes were a reflection on us and it wasn't worth it to ruin our reputation. The money wasn't worth it or the hassle either.

Reply by Les_CO on 5/15/09 9:46am
Msg #288579

I for one would never try and be a middle, middle, man. What a responsibility, what a hassle, and the time expended….for pennies. If I get a call from someone good, and I’m booked I refer a local notary that I know is competent.

Reply by ME/NJ on 5/15/09 12:30pm
Msg #288600

Good and Bad part of this

I did this a few years ago during peak times with so called trust notaries.

Good- large volume some extra money for little work.

Bad- Trusted notary steals client (has happened), Notary makes mistake and cost you the account, Company goes bad and cost you a ton of $$$$$

When the market went south alot dropped and because of some big companies going under and left them in trouble.

Now notaries are think they can do the same again.. we shall see.

Reply by Ernest__CT on 5/15/09 12:46pm
Msg #288602

If you're busy, refer the signing ...

... to a Notary that you know. That Notary will do the same for you. If you find that business seems to be flowing just in one direction, sit down over coffee and talk about receiving a referral fee.

If you can't trust the other Notary to keep the agreement, then obviously the other Notary can't be trusted to be ethical in other ways either.

Reply by notaryinmo on 5/15/09 8:25pm
Msg #288637

Re: If you're busy, refer the signing ...

That's my point Ernest. I helped a notary out with a referral. Instead of her helping me out, she took the knowledge I shared with her to some of her friends and they've started their own SS. It isn't jealousy on my part - just to set the record straight, but I really don't think that this particilular notary is ethical with her dealings with me.

Reply by Ernest__CT on 5/15/09 1:01pm
Msg #288606

There is also the same problem with wedding officiants.

Some wedding officiants (Ministers, Justices of the Peace, etc.) advertise such a wide geographical area that any sensible person would know that either 1) The advertiser couldn't possibly be reasonably priced to cover all those miles; B) The advertiser is sitting at home thumb twiddling instead of marrying people; III) The advertiser isn't really covering all the areas listed. Often the advertiser is paying big bucks to be listed on the officiant search Sites, eclipsing the real local officiants who can't afford the bix bucks and / or rely on legitimate organic search bringing them business.

In most cases, the advertiser is really taking $XXX and then offering $XXX-200 to some local wedding officiant, and telling the couple that a "local affiliate" will be performing the actual ceremony. IMHO, that's unethical at the very least.

The search Sites are getting the big bucks from the fraudulant officiants, so there is no incentive for them to ban the offenders.

It'd be basically the same thing for title companies, etc., who use a pseudo signing service. As long as the job gets done correctly, why should they care that "just a notary" is skimming from the real Notary Signing Agent who does the actual work?r